In a game machine that allows enjoying an action-type game, the game advances by controlling the images relating to motions of actions and movement of a player character (hereinafter simply referred to as “the character”), which serves as a lead character in the game displayed on a screen of a display device, in accordance with a program process, based on an operation signal (hereinafter referred to as an operation input signal) from a controller pad (controller) operated by a player. In such an action-type game, in order to enhance the dramatic impact of the game, game video picture (images) where the character acts is generally provided in three-dimensional graphics.
In the three-dimensional graphics, based on three-dimensional data representing video pictures of various objects, the three-dimensional position relationship of the objects in an eye direction from a point of view in the virtual three-dimensional space is calculated, and the objects are represented in three-dimensional video picture by performing a rendering process.
Additionally, in the action-type game, the movement of the character or the paths of the movement in the virtual three-dimensional space is controlled based on the operation input signal from the controller pad operated by the player. As for such technologies, for example, the technologies described in the following patent documents have been proposed.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-149653 (Patent Document 1) proposes a game machine that sets a plurality of event positions in a three-dimensional space for producing events in the game and a plurality of movement paths connecting the event positions to each other, and includes movement process means for moving a point of view corresponding to a player along the movement paths, selected image displaying for displaying predetermined option images corresponding to the movement paths that can be taken next at an event position, and a pointing device for selecting one of the option images displayed by the selected image displaying means.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 3937179 (Patent Document 2) proposes a game machine including input control means for detecting an operation input from a player, position coordinate storing means for storing a position coordinate of a character in a virtual three-dimensional space, path information storing means for storing, as point data, a directional vector and the position coordinate given to each point of a sequence of points arranged in the virtual three-dimensional space, movement instruction direction obtaining means for specifying the point data positioned closest to the position coordinate of the character in the virtual three-dimensional space, and obtains the directional vector given to the specified point data, and position coordinate calculating means for moving, when the operation input from the player is detected by the input control means, the position coordinate of the character in the virtual three-dimensional space toward a direction of the directional vector obtained by the movement instruction direction obtaining means.